First published 2006
Jenny McCarthy strips away the sugar coating from new motherhood to reveal its messy, terrifying, and ridiculous truth. She confronts the physical indignities that follow childbirth, from numbing sprays to adult diapers, from hair loss to becoming a human burp cloth. McCarthy exposes the daily anxieties that consume new parents, like trimming tiny fingernails without drawing blood or panicking when the baby won't burp. She documents the incompetence that strikes even capable adults, who suddenly can't remember a single lullaby or figure out which toy will stop the crying. Her observations extend to the supporting cast of new parenthood: fathers who think infants make good wrestling partners, competitive mothers who turn playgroups into Olympic events, and grandmothers who wage silent wars over baby care. McCarthy combines raw honesty with sharp humor to create a guide that acknowledges both the love and the chaos of raising a small human.
Genres: family, humor, autobiography, parenting
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: humor, raw-honesty
225 pages · Paperback · Penguin Publishing Group